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Switzerland Coach Delighted with Qualification to World Cup

Submitted by content on Mon, 02/12/2018 - 10:07

Switzerland national team coach Vladimir Petkovic has confirmed that he is extremely delighted that his team has been able to seal qualification to the World Cup 2018 after managing a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland on aggregate. After having done well so far in the qualification campaign, Switzerland suffered a hiccup with a 2-0 loss against Portugal. This group match defeat meant that the national team had to settle for a second place of the table and had to go through a qualification in order to reach the World Cup 2018.

This is because of the two teams finishing the same number of points in the table. Over the course of the qualification campaign, Portugal had also done extremely well and picked up 27 points. However, the extra goal difference for Fernando Santos’ team was responsible for the victory. Switzerland had a lot of worry as they went into the play-off match against Northern Ireland, who are one of the stronger teams in the knockout stages of the competition. After a 1-0 win in the first leg, Switzerland were able to get a goalless draw in the return leg at home. Ultimately, the penalty from Ricardo Rodriguez in the first leg proved to be the decisive goal in the game. As a result, Switzerland will be making their way to Russia 2018 in order to play at the World Cup.

Vladimir Petkovic will be keen on taking the best squad possible to the World Cup. One of the players who has caught the eye in recent weeks is West Ham’s Edimilson Fernandes. He has been part of the revived squad under David Moyes, and he will be able to sneak are key players in the squad if he continues on the rich vein of form. However, he has just suffered a knee injury that can keep him out of action for the next few weeks.